London & South East retains entrepreneurial power house status while Birmingham ranks as top performing city outside the capital

Jan 12th 2015

Start-ups experience record breaking year in 2014

– Entrepreneurial power house status maintained by London and the South East – Outside of the South East, Birmingham ranks as top performing city – Manchester secures hot spot of the North position as entrepreneurial activity booms – Yorkshire, Humberside and the East Midland experience high levels of growth

New figures announced last week by StartUp Britain show that a record number of new businesses were created by UK entrepreneurs in 2014.

A total of 581,173 businesses were registered with Companies House in 2014 according to research from the national enterprise campaign which is run by the Centre for Entrepreneurs think tank. This figure exceeds that of 2013 when 526,446 new businesses were recorded and 2012 which saw 484,224 registered.

Greater London was a top performer on the entrepreneurial map with 184,671* businesses registered, Birmingham was next in line with 18,337 and then Manchester with 13,054. The figures represent positive news for the health of Britain’s entrepreneurial ecosystem with a distinct upward trend in the number of businesses starting up outside of London.

Commenting on the research findings, Luke Johnson, Chairman of the Centre for Entrepreneurs, said: “Starting a business is easier, quicker and cheaper than ever thanks to new technology. Entrepreneurs have higher profiles than in the past and are seen as role models. Traditional jobs for life have largely disappeared, as have occupational pensions.”

The Sunday Times recently cited figures from the Office for National Statistics which suggest that in addition to the increase in start-ups, the number of business failures has dropped notably with a reduction of 6% in the number of businesses dropping off the Companies House register, from 253,000 in 2013 to 238,000 in 2014.

The annual figures are taken directly from the StartUp tracker online tool used by StartUp Britain which on a daily, monthly and yearly basis tracks the number of businesses registered with Companies House.

*The numbers come directly from Companies House. The 2014 figure of 581,173 was taken on 31 December 2014. Figures will be audited in March 2015.